Executive Order 906 Summary

Executive Order 9066 issued by President Roosevelt on February 19. 1942 was a result of this new racial hatred. This law forced 120,000 Japanese Americans to sell their property, leave their homes, and enter detention camps located around the United States. Many rights granted to citizens by the Constitution were blatantly overlooked during this entire procedure.

In the Korematsu v. United States case, Japanese Americans were being removed from their homes by executive order. It was deemed necessary

Executive Order 9066 was “authorizing the removal of any or all people from military areas ‘as deemed necessary or desirable.’ The military in turn defined the entire West Coast, home to the majority of Americans of Japanese ancestry or citizenship, as a military area.”( A&E Television Networks, 2010) Executive Order 9066 would grant the federal government the authority to seize and quarantine any persons of Japanese descent that lived on the west coast of the United States or in Hawaii.

Following the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, racial tensions increased in the United States, especially on the West Coast (Divine 898). The anti-Japanese sentiment led to President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which gave military officials the power to limit the civil rights of Japanese Americans (Danzer 802). The order also authorized the forced relocation of all Japanese Americans to concentration camps (Divine 898). These camps were located in desolate deserts and flatlands in the interior of the United States (Sato 67). Two thirds of the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were forced to relocate were “Nisei”, or native born American citizens (Divine 898).

I do not think President Roosevelt was justified when ordering Executive Order 9066 because, most Japanese Americans were law-abiding citizens who loved their country. The government believed Japanese Americans to be a threat to society and that they would do what was necessary to protect the people of the United States. So if it meant locking up all Japanese to protect the American people it was a must.

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized Executive Order 9066. By signing the order, President Roosevelt directed the secretary of war to put certain zones under military power. The authorization of this order eventually led to the internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans that had been living in the United States for years. These Japanese Americans were imprisoned because of their ancestry. The imprisonment impacted their overall health and resulted in financial disaster.

On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II (Prange et al., 1981: p.174). On February 19, 1942, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 authorizing the Secretary of War and Military Commanders to prescribe areas of land as excludable military zones (Roosevelt, 1942). Effectively, this order sanctioned the identification, deportation, and internment of innocent Japanese Americans in War Relocation Camps across the western half of the United States. During the spring and summer of 1942, it is estimated that almost 120,000 Japanese Americans were relocated from their homes along the West Coast and in Hawaii and

“On February 19th, 1942 President Roosevelt signed into effect Executive Order 9066: an authorization for military authorities to exclude any and all persons from designated areas of the country as necessary for national defense (Jones, Par. 11).” This was the first strike in a round of racial exclusion that violated the Japanese's rights, abolished their faith in the American government, and interned them in a camp for up to four years. The Japanese internment camps were unethical and completely barbaric because they violated the Japanese's rights as individuals and as citizens of the United States, it was a violation of the justice system as well, they had no evidence to prove any of the Japanese were plotting against the United States,

During the early 1940’s during the World War II era. The Supreme Court held the Korematsu v. United States, which became one of the biggest Supreme Court cases. The United States. Supreme Court held the conviction of Fred Korematsu, who was an American citizen born in Oakland, California but was also of Japanese descent from Japanese immigrants. Korematsu violated an exclusion order requiring him to submit a forced relocation during the World War II. After the bombing of the Pearl Harbor in the Pacific Ocean by Japan’s military against the United States and the United States entry to World War II. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued an executive order on February 19, 1942, the Executive Order 9066 gave authorization to the Secretary of War and the United States as military areas. The issue ,mainly applied to one-third of the land area of the United States and was used against those with “Foreign Enemy Ancestry” which mainly include Japanese, Italians, and Germans. The issue also gave the authority to hold certain people in internment camps, mainly the Japanese. This action by the United States were seen as a form of discrimination. The people who were held in internment camps were forced to leave their homes and were no longer able to work at their jobs, this became a huge impact on the economy as being not being able to work at your

The government had the right and power to relocate the Japanese-Americans. It was justifiable in the court's eyes that the government had reason to believe that the Japanese were deemed a threat. On December 18, 1944, the Supreme Court rules in a six to three decision that the Executive Order 9066 was considered Constitutional.

Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, authorizing the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones, clearing the way for the deportation of Japanese Americans and Italian-Americans to internment camps. On December 17, 1944, U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issued Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that,

In February 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 9066 to allow the internment of more than one hundred thousands people of Japanese heritage living on the west coast of the United States. In the midst of World War II, F.D.R. instituted this order following popular opinion and poor advice from his cabinet. This dismal decision was made in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, as Anti-Japanese paranoia was increasing. This terrible event left a scar on the rather spotless-at least to the public eye- profile of the United States. There were many factors that led to this rather severe course of action. Unfortunately, history has the tendency to repeat itself and the current political climate predicts such harsh precautions to be reproduced. Internment has a chance to reappear once more considering the current political climate especially around Muslims and Terrorism against the U.S.

President Roosevelt then signed Executive Order 9066 which resulted in Japanese imprisonment. Overall, the decision of Japanese internment was not justified because it was made out of racial prejudice against Japanese which already occurred before the war while Germans and Italians were not looked at negatively, sabotage against the United States would likely be carried out by Japanese Nationals who were more of a threat than Japanese Americans, and the decision was a result of poor leadership and irrational fear. ` To begin, racial prejudice and anti-Japanese sentiment existed before the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the early 1900’s, Japanese Americans were denied the right to marry out of their race, to own land, and to become citizens of the United States. During this time period, there was little tolerance toward people of color.

The Japanese were interned in our country during WWII. The United States justified this as a measure of security against the possibility of spies and saboteurs. The United States feared that those of Japanese ancestry would be spying for the Japanese, or would sabotage war efforts. Japanese warplanes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7th, 1941. By December 8th, the United States declared war on Japan, Germany and their allies. The Japanese attack brought America into World War II. It “outraged Americans and sparked a wave of anti-Japanese sentiment across the country. Many blamed all Japanese for the attack, directing their anger and frustration even at Japanese resident aliens and Japanese-Americans who had done nothing that would bring into question their loyalty to the United States” (Morelock). There was an atmosphere of fear, anger, racial animosity, and uncertainty. President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 two months after the declaration of war. It gave the United States Army the authority to round up Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast and put them in “relocation (internment) camps.” “In the spring of 1942, some 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were taken from their homes on the West Coast and incarcerated by order of the U.S. government. None had committed any acts of treason or espionage, and there was no evidence that any of them contemplated such activities” (Wax 13). Seventy thousand of them were United States’ citizens.

However, issues came along when Mexican Americans in the southwest felt that they were being discriminated because they were getting paid less than what white workers were being paid to do the same jobs. To deal with this issue, activists rose up and brought their complaints to the Fair Employment Practices Commission. In 1942, The Executive Order 9066 issued by President Roosevelt forced people of Japanese descent from the West Coast to relocate to internment camps. This was the result of the fear of a Japanese invasion, and existing prejudice against the Japanese after the attack on Pearl Harbor. With what seemed to be an order based on race, many Japanese Americans refused to relocate. This was the case for Fred Korematsu, who did not show up for internment because he felt that the order was indeed an act of racism against the Japanese.